MovieChat Forums > Bee Season (2005) Discussion > What am I missing? SPOILERS

What am I missing? SPOILERS

posted 17 years ago by blainefielding
14 replies | jump to latest

Okay, so Eliza intentionally mis-spells "origami" to lose the Bee becuase it will heal her dysfunctional family. {This is young Flora Cross' interpreation of her character on the Special Feature's section of the DVD}. But why? Would not have winning done as much?

Or, alternatively, is not the Bee irrelevant anyway to the other three's problems? Mom's wackiness has nothing to do with her daughter's spelling. And neither does it with dad's borish, overwhelming of his family. Or with the son's jealousy over his father's shift of attention from him to his sister.

Perhaps, the novel itself makes the ending more understandable. Or perhaps I am just dense. Anyway, I would appreciate some guidance here.

Blaine in Seattle

[–] gkearns 17 years ago

Or, alternatively, is not the Bee irrelevant anyway to the other three's problems? Mom's wackiness has nothing to do with her daughter's spelling. And neither does it with dad's borish, overwhelming of his family. Or with the son's jealousy over his father's shift of attention from him to his sister.

On the contrary. It's all related to Elly's spelling, but not in a straight-line way. Dad's "boorish, overwhelming of his family" is an accurate assessment, but in itself isn't the core of the problem. The family was getting along satisfactorily, if not perfectly, before Elly's successes. Both Aaron and Miriam were happy for Elly in the beginning. The turning point wasn't the winning of a bee, but her father's reaction to it - that's what sent the family into a tailspin.

This question was visited here some time ago. You might check http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387059/board/thread/41479473?d=41515388&p=1#41515388 . I hope it helps.

Gordon

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

[–] blainefielding 17 years ago

Thanks for the prompt reply Gordon. { I usually don't reply myself so promptly but they are doing very noisy construction work outside my apartment so I can't sleep}.

Your posts make a lot of sense. But I still have one uncertainty concerning the mother. Her kleptomania dates back to her childhood loss. Does Eliza's action cure her and if so how?

Blaine in Seattle

[–] gkearns 17 years ago

Good question. We never know what happens "the day after," That's grist for a whole new story. The father might well have gone back to his old ways (leopard and spots sort of thing). Aaron might have returned to Chali, why not? And mental problems of the kind Miriam exhibited don't get cured by quick fixes, although some movies think that even profound problems are simple cause-and-effect curable.

I think that what Elly provided by her decision was the opportunity for a change in her father's attitude. Certainly, he seemed to have caught on as he hugged Aaron in the aisle. If he really was enlightened, he might return to Miriam with a willingness to try to understand her, which he didn't seem capable of before. He was so wrapped up in his own philosophy, his own obsessions, his own power position in the family that he was unable to see what was happening in the hearts of those closest to him. Elly's act brought him face-to-face with that; he was suddenly forced to see Elly as a person of decision-making substance of her own, rather than, well, a blob of play-dough. And, at least for the moment, he could see how he had failed his wife and son.

Miriam likely wasn't cured by Elly's act, but the door has been opened to the possibility.

Gordon

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

[–] alvin_wade 17 years ago

Nice one Gordon!!

To me Elly signalled to her father that she was not the most important thing - the whole family was. He was searching for something special in all of them and when he found it in Elly he became obssessed with her to the detriment of the rest of the family.

Elly could see this and therefore by deliberately spelling the letter of the last word wrong, that her father KNOWS she can spell, she is signalling to him that the thing that is most important is the WHOLE family. Also with the last letter being 'Y' it shatters his illussions and he is enlightened in a different way to the needs of the individuals that make up the whole of the family.

Hope this makes sense.

It is what it is

[–] gkearns 17 years ago

Hope this makes sense.

Makes sense to me. The key is that she misspelled a word "that her father KNOWS she can spell. And I like your take on the letter "Y."

Gordon

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

[–] ReadListenThinkLearn 17 years ago

I feel like I am missing something, too, concerning Miriam. I must have missed the part about a childhood loss. What happened in her childhood? I got the impression that her kleptomania only dated back to sometime after she met Saul, because the object of her keptomania obsession was to construct a "vessel" to hold light, as she told him in the hospital, which was the basis of his philosophy/religious beliefs. (It was interesting that as he was hearing her explain this back to him, he seemed to think it sounded crazy!)

I thought that perhaps Miriam was his first "project/experiment" whom he tried the Kabbalist mystical stuff on, but it had "gone wrong" -- as he cautioned Elly about how it could be dangerous -- and when it failed, it resulted in the beginning of her mental crack up. Hers was a slow "shattering", if you will. Or, her vessel was unable to hold the light properly, which is why he abandoned her (emotionally) and moved on to the next project (Aaron) and then onto the next (Elly). And for Miriam, once Saul took over her household/motherly duties over Elly (cooking, instructing, etc) it sped up the shattering process until she just crumbled. Miriam had given up her own faith and converted to her husband's upon marriage, but even in doing that, she was never able to please him.

So I guess given this, (as what I saw and could make out), I do not really follow how the failing of the spelling bee helped Miriam, which the movie definitely implies that it did at the end. Miriam had not been in that hotel room to hear her spell it right the night before, and she had not been coaching her child all along as she had no interest in it whatsoever-- so how could Miriam KNOW that she missed it on purpose? Was she just happy to see her daughter fail? It did not really make sense to me.

[–] gkearns 17 years ago

I feel like I am missing something, too, concerning Miriam. I must have missed the part about a childhood loss. What happened in her childhood?

It was easy to miss. We were clued in flashbacks early in the story. Her parents were evidently killed in an auto accident.

Miriam had not been in that hotel room to hear her spell it right the night before, and she had not been coaching her child all along as she had no interest in it whatsoever-- so how could Miriam KNOW that she missed it on purpose? Was she just happy to see her daughter fail? It did not really make sense to me.

Elly had been almost obsessed with the placement of the tv camera at the final bee. Throughout the bee she constantly made eye contact with the camera, which to her was a direct contact with her mother, who she knew would be watching. Notice Elly's face and eye signals when she was given the final word, as well as after she'd missed it.

I thought that perhaps Miriam was his first "project/experiment" whom he tried the Kabbalist mystical stuff on, but it had "gone wrong" -- as he cautioned Elly about how it could be dangerous -- and when it failed, it resulted in the beginning of her mental crack up. Hers was a slow "shattering", if you will. Or, her vessel was unable to hold the light properly, which is why he abandoned her (emotionally) and moved on to the next project (Aaron) and then onto the next (Elly). And for Miriam, once Saul took over her household/motherly duties over Elly (cooking, instructing, etc) it sped up the shattering process until she just crumbled. Miriam had given up her own faith and converted to her husband's upon marriage, but even in doing that, she was never able to please him.

That's a really fascinating slant. I'd never thought of the possibility Miriam was Saul's first experiment. I like that idea. She did seem to have a thorough knowledge of his Kabbalist beliefs. And it would loop her into the story line more directly, as well as help clear up her dialog with him in the hospital. Thanks.

Gordon

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

[–] ReadListenThinkLearn 17 years ago

Thanks for the reply, Gordon! I wondered what the flashbacks were, and somehow I thought that it would be revealed that a child of Miriam's and Saul's had died in a crash or something. When that was never revealed, I figured the images were metaphors of the "broken vessel" and shattering of her own soul. But I guess I missed Elly's question about Miriam's parents' death.

Now this is making me think back to another flashback that Miriam had. When teh kids were in bed and Saul was playing his violin (or was it cello? can't remember) she was about to head out the door because she "had had enough". But she paused at the door, thinking back to a quiet moment in bed with Saul when he told her they would together "fix the broken pieces". This thought was so powerful and hope-filled to her that it made her decide to go back inside and go to him, asking for affection. Now I'm thinking that the broken pieces he was talking about (in this scene from an earlier time in their marriage), must have surely been referring to this death of her parents and the emotional blow it dealt her. Which suggests that this was probably her main attraction to Saul; she saw him and his philosophy/religion as a means for some emotional resolve for her; her "savior". And certainly in the beginning of their relationship, at one point, she had been his main focus, but now it had been withdrawn; and a possible reason (as she intereprets it) it was withdrawn, as I mentioned earlier, was because she had "let him down" by not excelling at the Kabbalist goal which he may have tried coaching her in earlier, as we see him now doing with Elly (and which he had probably coached Aaron in -- and failed -- as we might gather from Aaron's outburst, his religious rebellion, and his warning to his sister the night before the bee).

The more I think about it, the more I really like this movie.

Someone in another thread asks if we are meant to "hate Saul". But I think it is not that at all. Saul is the center, the main focus of this family. He is the spiritual dynamo, the strong, father figure, the leader, the savior for them all. Miriam and Aaron worship him and seek his attention, and when it is withdrawn, they are shaken -- or shattered (as in Miriam's case). It is only Elly who can stand on her own. Perhaps this is the reason she alone can achieve the mystical goal. The other two family members made Saul their "god", whereas Elly did not, allowing her to really commune with the True God. But for a family to truly work well, both the father and mother must stand together, interdependant, as the focus and strength of the family -- and Elly was the only one who realized that, when she answered her brother as he was telling her that their Dad needs to control them all; she replied to him: No, Dad needs Mom.

[–] blainefielding 17 years ago

Thanks for your excellewnt points "Read...". The mysteries deepen.

Blaine in Seattle

[–] ReadListenThinkLearn 17 years ago

Blaine in Seattle says: "The mysteries deepen."

Yes, they do! And this is what I think is so attractive about this movie. It's been a long time since I've seen anything that has made me think this much.

[–] Stephenpdixon 16 years ago

Thanks for shedding light on the central themes of the film. For those of us who have not read the book, clarification is in order. One question: What was the significance of the earrings that Miriam discovers? Initially, I thought that Saul was having an affair, but I think she might have stole them for her project.

[–] sandfleas2008 15 years ago

Yes, I thought the earring was perhaps an indication that Miriam had had/was having an affair, until I finally started putting some of the pieces of her backstory together. The flashbacks are all of the fact that she obviously--despite telling Elly she was at boarding school when the accident happened--a witness to the horrible wreck that killed her parents. Again and again we see her memory of picking up what looked like a man's (her father's) shattered eyeglasses from the pavement, where they were thrown a few feet clear of the mangled little yellow car her (now) dead parents were in. This image of shattered glass was compounded with her fond memories of the beloved kaleidescope that her mother had given her (and which she passes on to Elly after the first bee--we even get an image of her face fractured into multiple images as Elly looks through it). So Miriam starts with this combined set of broken-glass-reflecting/refracting-light images, both painfully associated with her parents who are now gone. Based on this, we can see (IMHO) how any teaching by Saul about the Light, the broken vessel (kaleidescopes use glass shards, remember), etc. would be a powerful connect to her already fragile and at least partly subconcious mindset investing great emotional importance to these kinds of images. I'm guessing she had been stealing glass or glasslike objects from strangers long before she met Saul--but who knows, may be wrong about that, lol. Anyway it makes a perfect kind of sense that this lonely, damaged person would find an unhealthy way of dealing with her early loss by constructing her own 'vessel' for the light with all of these 'found' (read: stolen) objects. What's left unsaid is the motivation for them coming from strangers, from being stolen--not merely collected, purchased, etc. But I bet any good clinical psychologist could come up with a convincing connection of these aspects of her obsession with the images of light and broken glass--based on perhaps other unknown aspects of her history, I doubt if it would be much of a stretch. (Maybe just the linguistic/mechanical fact of 'breaking and entering?') This is after all a 'sick puppy' in the kindess sense of the term, someone who is also--now--as broken as the glass items that drive her collection and creation.

Just a thought! (And yes, thanks Gordon for all your thoughtful insights in various posts here--most 'enlightening!')

The process of getting there is the quality of being there

[–] aghinem 14 years ago

Another facet to consider (pun intended ;-)...

I haven't read the book, but I'm wondering if Miriam was about Eliza's age when the accident happened. That may have been some kind of trigger for Miriam, causing her to give Eliza the kaleidoscope and blouse and ratcheting up her anxiety and kleptomania.

[–] mmmetallica75 (1) 6 months ago

Fascinating insights everyone. I was reading all about the sublime Juliette Binoche so I missed most of the film.
You've all shed a beautiful light on this ending. The girls focus was mainly on that bird in flight during the last cliffhanger.
Symbolic of Freedom & Truth.
But WHY did the word have to be ORIGAMI?
I could spell that when I was 4 or 5!!! Compared to the other crazy difficult ones.
Except...there may be a link to 1000 paper cranes. Facing the certain death of her 'family' - she stayed humble & became the positive catalyst by demonstrating that it is more important to show love & compassion in the face of human imperfection in order to bring everyone together (like Jesus) - rather than to be Right. Wise girl.
I may be way off base.